Logan's Run is one of the most watched and loved movies in my home. My husband's only comics consist of Marvel's Logan's Run, which follows the movie and takes the plot beyond to a possible future for the characters and Adventure Comics Logan's Run, which while true to the book with wonderful graphic covers, looked poorly rendered inside. For a long while, the only quality collectables for Logan's Run was the movie itself. Even the book was out of print and available only at used bookstores. So when we heard Brian Singer, of XMen fame, was planning a remake we were very excited. IMagine the merchandising that would emerge for collectors?
Busy collecting and passing information along to other cult fans, we caught a blurb that mentioned Singer was intending to follow the book more closely. Sounds good right? The book, writen by Nolan and Johnson is puported to have been writen in three weeks. My contention has always been that it was writen by sex deprived geeks on a drug binge. In the novel, people live only to age 21, at which age they head to the nearest center to calmly termanate their life. The story is an erratic plot repleat with drugs, sexual deviance and cuelty that makes Clive Barker's novels look like a sermon in a chapel.
The film however, released in 1976, is much different. Producers suggested several changes from the book based on practicality. One 20 year old actor of renown would be hard to find but an entire cast younger than 21 would be near impossible. They already had Michael York in mind for the role and were banking heavily on his fame and box office appeal - so first change was lastday pushed from 21 to 30. Other changes were made including making the world post apocalyptic, a single city enclosed in domes and a happy ending. In the movie adaption there is still no concept of marriage and the next generation is born in breeders. The movie was a success, but was dwarfed soon after by George Lucas' Star Wars. But as a cult classic, Logan's Run survived as a t.v. series and thrived in releases on video and dvd.
Singer's challenge will come when the vast number of fans, familiar only with the movie, expect to see a romantic science fiction film that ends happily ever after. What they will get, should Singer stick to his word, will be much different than the original film version; rape instead of romance, hopelessness in place of hope and violence instead of an old man's wisdom.
Fantasy and Science Fiction has always been the bastion of the "Eucatastophy" as Tolkien named it; the triumph of good over evil, perserverence over adversity, wisdom over impetuousness. In this vein the movie Logan's Run is vastly truer to fans than the book.
What Singer promises to bring fans will test all of the masses who proclaim "The book is always better than the movie."
We shall see . . .
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